Our work cannot be completed without the dedication of our team
Co-Directors ENGAGED Center
Susan Magasi
Susan Magasi, PhD, FACRM (she/her/elle), is passionate about health and participation equity for people with disabilities. She works closely with the disability community, using an equity-focused, community-based participatory approach to help understand and address barriers to health and participation, with a focus on peer support and technology-enabled self-management interventions. She is deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of disability and rehabilitation researchers, with a commitment to students who have historically been excluded from the clinical and research workforces. She identifies as a disability community ally.
Joy Hammel
Joy Hammel, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA (she/her/hers), is an internationally recognized leader, scholar, and educator in disparities in social participation among people with disabilities.
Her research and teaching focus on community-based participatory action research related to community living and participation choice, control, and societal opportunity or disparities with people who are aging with disabilities, and disability and aging communities.
Hammel identifies both the barriers and supports to community living and societal participation; works toward consumer-directed and patient-centered assessment tools to evaluate disparities; and researches participatory means to change systems, make action plans for environmental and policy issues, and build community capacity for participation by people with disabilities. She identifies as a member of the disability community.
Co-Directors ENGAGED Community Outreach and Engagement Core
Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar
Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar, PhD (she/her/ella), is trained as a community psychologist. She is an internationally recognized leader in community-engaged research, cultural humility, and the cultural adaptation of rehabilitation and other interventions that center the lived experiences of people with disabilities.
Her recent scholarship has focused on understanding the social determinants of health affecting Latinx immigrant families of children with disabilities and developing culturally tailored interventions to promote health equity and well-being.
She identifies as a relative of a person with an intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) and as an ally to the disability community.
Jeni Hebert-Beirne
Jeni Hebert-Beirne, PhD, MPH (she/her/hers) is a community-based participatory researcher (CBPR) prioritizing qualitative research methodology to advance health equity and justice at the neighborhood level, with a focus on Chicago community areas. Her community-engaged scholarship focuses on the lived experience of those most impacted by structural drivers of health inequities. She is a community engagement scientist exploring ways to build transformative community-academic research partnerships.
Jeni identifies as an ally to the disability community.
Co-Directors ENGAGED Resource Core
Sarah Parker Harris
Sarah Parker Harris, PhD, is the co-director of the ENGAGED MR3 Resource Core. Her interdisciplinary scholarship bridges social policy, sociology, and disability studies, with expertise in qualitative methods, systematic review, and public policy analysis. Her research centers on advancing disability rights and civil rights, employment policy and practice, and creating accessible pathways to economic opportunity and community engagement, with a strong emphasis on knowledge translation in disability research and practice.
Lex Friedan
Lex Frieden, MA, LLD, is an internationally recognized leader in disability rights, accessibility, and independent living. Over the course of his career, he has worked to advance policies and technologies that improve opportunities and inclusion for people with disabilities in education, employment, transportation, and public life. As a researcher, educator, and advocate, he has helped shape major disability legislation and has collaborated with organizations across the United States and internationally. His work continues to focus on promoting equal access, innovation, and full participation for people with disabilities in society. He is best known for his contributions to the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Dr. Frieden will also be a co-investigator on the research core. In Houston, Dr. Frieden will be the site PI, managing the creation and distribution of program materials by the TIRR team, coordinating outreach to consumer organizations, and fostering collaboration with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Center for Clinic & Translational Sciences.
Director ENGAGED Pilot Grant Program
Tanvi Bhatt, PhD, PT (she/her/hers) is the director of the Cognitive, Motor and Balance Rehabilitation Laboratory and co-director of the Clinical Gait and Motion Analysis laboratory. Her research interest and expertise are in the field of adaptive perturbation training for fall prevention. Her research involves investigating the neuromechanical basis of balance recovery from external perturbations such as slips and trips and subsequently designing intervention paradigms for reducing fall-risk in healthy and pathological populations.
Her research interest and focus also lays in examining the effects of alternative cognitive and motor therapies (including virtual reality gaming and dance therapy) for improving impairment, function and participation in community-dwelling people with neurological disorders with an emphasis on stroke survivors. She brings extensive experience in grants management and project infrastructure design to the team. She identifies as a disability community ally.
Core Partners
American Association of People with Disabilities
The American Association of People with Disabilities works to increase the political and economic power of people with disabilities.
As a national disability-led and cross disability rights organization, AAPD advocates for full civil rights for over 60 million Americans with disabilities. We do this by promoting equal opportunity, economic power, independent living, and political participation.
American Association on Health & Disability
The American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD) is dedicated to ensuring health equity for children and adults with disabilities through policy, research, education, and dissemination at the federal, state and community level. AAHD strives to advance health promotion and wellness initiatives for people with disabilities. AAHD’s goal is to reduce health disparities between people with disabilities and the general population, and to support full community inclusion and accessibility. AAHD is governed by an esteemed group of board members representing people with disabilities, disability researchers, disability advocates, healthcare, and public health professionals.
American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
The American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) unites rehabilitation professional from around the world to advance evidence-based care, foster collaboration across disciplines and translate cutting-edge research into clinical practice that improves lives every day.
American Occupational Therapy Foundation
The American Occupational Therapy Foundation (AOTF) advances the science of occupational therapy so that every person, regardless of age or ability, can live a meaningful and independent life, participating in the activities that matter to them.